They were happy together, a family, for a time. David was an auto mechanic with his own small, moderately successful shop. His wife, Rachel, worked as a nurse but left her career once their firstborn Samuel was born. Two years later Daemon was born. As they grew the two boys were inseparable. Samuel was the more physical one, while his brother took more after their father, with a head for schematics and mechanical things. For a time, they were happy. The Drakes were devout as a family; even as Detroit gradually crumbled into crime all around them, they never broke faith with the Church, that is until Rachel came down with cancer. It would have been one thing if it had been a mugging. Violent crime, that was the sin of men, but for David it was as though God himself had forsaken them. Daemon was 8 when his mother passed away.

David turned to the bottle, to gambling, his spirit broken, his sons left largely to fend for themselves. Samuel being the older, hardier, more aggressive one, was gradually indoctrinated into the Underworld; there are enumerable uses for children in organized crime and the mob likes to get them started early. It starts with simple lookout duty, then courier work, with the branches of pushing, pimping, and muscle opening up with age, experience, and merit. Daemon was the voice of restraint, trying his best to keep Sam in check, and doing his part to support them by hot-wiring cars and watching his back. Depending on your point of view, the two either came up, or fell down on the mean streets of Detroit. While they had each other, their prospects looked grim. Two more lost boys disappearing in the cracks. Those cracks aren't empty...there are things in those depths, hiding in the shadows, feeding on the forgotten.

The brothers were perfect specimens, the serum only worked during puberty. Something about the growth and hormonal profile, but too young or too old and Extremis would devour the host alive. So the black-site laboratory charged with its experimentation preyed upon the urchins and orphans that nobody would miss. In time they were able to decode what the system was, an extraterrestrial nano-retro-virus that transformed its hosts into techno-organic killing machines. The backers of the black-site, a shadowy alliance of governments and corporations, saw this as fortuitous in the wake of the rising incidence of empowered citizens, and commissioned a cadre of super soldiers decanted from the limited amount of sample they possessed. Samuel and Daemon were in the first wave of the fully weaponized serum, along with 8 others. The system overrode the host's control, so while they were aware of their actions, they were not in control of them. If they weren't on a mission the system kept them sedated, in effective stasis. They spent two years in this living hell, until the entire operation exploded, quite literally, during a conflict with the Legion. Daemon was activated, but Samuel was in stasis when Two detonated, vaporizing the facility, and everything else within a mile. Daemon was only 16.

Rise of the Demon

Once the system went down, so did the control system. For the first time since the infusion he was in control of his own will. For the first time in his life he was alone. He returned home. Soon after rumors and reports began to swirl about some kind of supernatural fiend waging war upon the Underworld of Old Detroit. The rapist who had his genitals cauterized off. The mob boss who killed himself within his impenetrable sanctum. Drug labs burned to ashes.The Demon of Detroit they called him, and he developed a fearsome reputation.

For the better part of two years, Daemon waged his shadow war of vengeance and catharsis against the mobs and street gangs of the inner city. At age 18 he and 3 other young heroes created a bootstrapped alliance of unconventional anti-heroes and called themselves The Pact. There was Hellion, the Demon Prince. Succubus, a former prostitute with powers of illusion and manipulation. Chance, a grifter who manipulated probability for good and ill fortune, and finally Sloppy Joe, whose body had dissolved into corrosive slime, barely held together by his humanoid force field. The official super-team of Detroit, The Battlers, was as corrupt as they city government they ostensibly served, and in reality were often used by The Detroit Alliance of mafia families. For over a year, the Battlers and the Pact fought, the latter labeled as criminals or terrorists in the media, but known widely by citizens on the streets as dark heroes, standing up for those unable to take a stand for themselves.

All that changed with a recent bloody bombing. Somehow their secret base below the city was discovered and destroyed. Succubus and Sloppy Joe were disintegrated instantly. Chance's powers saved his life, but left him in a coma. Daemon only survived due to the restorative powers of Extremis. With a series of seemingly interconnected attacks occurring simultaneously across the globe, it is clear that this conspiracy goes well beyond Daemon's demesne. And so it is that he seeks out the survivors, leading him to the old guard of the Legion, and the lasting legacy of his brother.

Psychology

Damaged, rough around the edges, but not yet hardened. Despite his stark morality, Daemon exhibits a classic distrust of authority that manifests as challenge and rebellion, but underneath his mask of bravado he is very frightened by what he has become. On one hand he revels in his rebirth, but is terrified when the system takes control. In those moments he really does feel like he's been possessed by a demon.

Not nearly the lone wolf one might first expect, the loss of first his mother, his brother, and now The Pact has hit him pretty hard, and finding ways to cope has not been easy. His enhancements mean that alcohol and drugs are no longer an option, though he still smokes out of habit. He and Succubus had been having a subdued on-and-off again relationship, but both being damaged goods it was never meant to last, and he tends more often than not to sex for escapism. These affairs rarely last more than a single night. His primary vice is still violence, a visceral outlet for a lifetime of loss.

Quote:

Complications

Motivation: Acceptance

With his brother gone, and the Pact destroyed, Daemon lost his last remaining tether and sense of belonging. His transformation has brought him the power to vent his anger, but the insecurity of feeling like a freak. Though he isn't really conscious of his deeper emotions, his desire to fit in will usually subtly lead him to doing the right thing, given the right influences.

Motivation: Vigilantism

Daemon will cross lines that others can't or won't in order to stop those untouchable through legal means. To defeat a demon, you must become a demon yourself.

Hooligan

In many ways, Daemon is his own worst enemy, the chip on his shoulder just the surface of wounds that run so deep, even Extremis couldn't regenerate the damage.

Dependent

When Daemon returned to Chicago after being freed from Extremis control, he found his father was alive after all, now homeless and mentally ill. Daemon had him put in an appropriate shelter, and still checks in on the Old Man regularly, as well as pays the bills for his care.

Hardwired

The serum altered Daemon to be a living weapon of mass murder and destruction. While capable of using his powers on his own, when an outside threat is detected, his own instincts to avoid conflict are overridden by his new programming. At the most extreme he enters a dissociative state until the perceived threat is entirely neutralized. Unfortunately the system is not so great at distinguishing real danger from more benign encroachments.

Doomsday Weapon

The creators of the Extremis serum were thorough indeed in the creation of their shock troops. Should the innate repair functions of the system ever be overloaded, most likely in the event of his death, Daemon would go nova with enough force to level an entire city. It is possible that tampering with or even temporarily shutting down his repair functions might have much the same effect.

Though he parlays his abilities into a supernatural persona, their origins are anything but magical. The ultra-black site he was taken to was experimenting with nano-technoglogy, possibly of extraterrestrial or extra dimensional origin in an attempt to create super soldiers who could be an effective countermeasure to the rising numbers of super powered gods and monsters crowding the planet.

Once injected into a human host the serum goes to work, breaking down organs, building new ones, and using carbon from the atmosphere to generate extremely strong graphene-based structures, rebuilding bone, muscle, and neural tissue to a preprogrammed spec. Even blood plasma is replaced with a solution of free floating nanites. What keeps them powered up is unknown but is postulated to be some kind of zero-point catalyzed nano-fusion. The host no longer requires outside sources of fuel, functioning through highly efficient anaerobic processes. All metabolic waste is converted into more energy and heat, while the system's capacity for tissue repair is nothing short of awe-inducing...

Daemon's body has been altered and augmented down to the nanoscale, blurring the lines between organic and mechanical. Strength, speed, and durability are all significantly beyond any normal human limit. Likewise his nervous system has been enhanced: Aside from being hardened against outside manipulation, an autonomic adaptive combat protocol has override capability over the host. When operating under mission parameters or any kind of perceived threat this programming is activated, almost like an organic move-by-wire system. In other words, the host becomes hardwired to fight and adapt to any circumstance or environment.

Because the serum seems to have been created to take down other metahumans, its design has been fully weaponized with a number of incredibly lethal offensive systems:

Nano-Talons:

When close-quarters single-target lethality is required, mono-molecular-tipped talons extrude from the pads of the fingertips. Moreover these talons are coated with specialized nanites. Upon contact they surge into the wound where they proceed to teach themselves to the target's central and peripheral nervous systems. This can be parlayed into a number of effects, such as crippling the target with debilitating agony, Disrupting nerve signals, or even outright hijacking control over the host.

Plasma Projection:

For dealing with large numbers of hostile forces, he is capable of filling his lungs with immensely hot ionized plasma, breathing fire and death like the dragons of myth.

Exothermic Grip:

If he is capable of finding solid purchase upon a target, he can exothermically channel plasma heat directly through his hands, rendering even the hardest target into slag within a matter of moments.

In one possible future, by the year 2065, China has become the superpower. Not satisfied with the economic and military defeat and annexation of old rivals Russia and the US, only a small coalition of nations remains in opposition, including Australia, New Zealand, England, Scandinavia, and Japan. It is the latter's hyper-advanced technology which has allowed the resistance to survive in the face of such superior numbers.

Toshiro was only 8 when the third great world war erupted. A prodigiously bright child, he scored highly in math and the sciences, eventually specializing in quantum mechanics, and by age 15 had been invited into a special magnet research think-tank funded by Japan's leading technological giant, Shinkawa Heavy Industries.

Neikani Shinkawa had risen to power in the zaibatsu after her father, CEO and brilliant technologist Katsuhiro Shinkawa was assassinated by US special forces in the year 2070. The young Toshiro had caught her attention with his revolutionary theories about quantum superstrings, and theoretical temporal manipulation, and took a personal interest in supporting his line of research. The two became very close over the next 2 years, developing a complicated and eventually romantic relationship. She used this intimacy to stoke the fire of his brilliance, pushing him from the theoretical to the actual, painting him as a pioneer at the final frontier. Time itself.

Time and Entropy are intertwined creating a near-infinite amount of forward inertia. The power supply required to reverse the flow and insulate the traveller from simply being rewound as well was unfathomable. Mind numbed by hours of staring at equations that could simply not be solved without initiating a catastrophic event. Dozing off, in the liminal space between conscious and unconscious, Toshiro was struck with a sudden epiphany, the breakthrough he'd been searching for.

It's difficult to describe exactly what happened next. In essence, Toshiro created or discovered an entirely new way of conceiving of time, causality, probabilities, and entropy that allowed for time travel. He either thought into existence or became the first human of the multiverse. In any case, the very moment after he realized it was possible, he was staring face to face with a future self...

For once time travel was conceived of and created, it set into motion a temporal singularity. Was. Is. Will Be. His older self explained what had happened, will happen, and was happening. Apparently Neikani had ignored his warnings about creating a critical tachyon cascade and built a machine anyway, based off his earlier research. Callous to the death toll it would accrue, she justified it by seeking to end the war in the first place, by subverting and controlling the US and preventing the Third Great War in the first place. Unable to stop the machine, Toshiro survived by kitbashing a temporal shunt to shift himself forward in time, escaping the destruction.

Able to refine his new model at a remote Shinkawa lab, Toshiro built/will build a functional Flux Reactor, housing it within a powerful prototype military exo-armor. Once able to travel safely through time, he attempts to travel back and stop Neikani, but she had been able to warn her future/past self to be ready, meaning she had been playing Toshiro for a fool the entire time. Unfortunately, this latest iteration had her sending a team of assassins to take him out, which was why he had travelled back to this moment to extract him, and create the Flux Armor.

Unable to prevent the Tachyon Bomb directly, Toshiro and his allied selves track Neikani through time, landing in the early decades of the 21st Century. There Neikani has created and unleashed the Silver Storm, opening the Pandora's Box of metahuman powers into the world. Becoming the first true mastermind-supervillain, she uses her knowledge of future technology, finance, and events to forge a hostile corporate takeover of the US and the globe.

Appearance and Personality

Eschewing the stereotype of the nebbish genius, Toshiro presents a passionate and cocky confidence. However, as intelligent as he might be, his mouth often seems disconnected from his brain, making him a bit socially oblivious to those around him. He doesn't try to be a jerk, but sometimes his lack of tact can offend others, though to his credit he usually feels terrible about it after the fact. He never sees himself as too emotional, and often wonders why others get so upset when he's just being matter-of-fact.

Physically Toshiro stands slightly taller than the average Nihonjin at 5'8", though the suit brings him to 6'0" even. When not speeding about in his alter-ego, he appears to be a lanky Japanese kid with fair features, bright dyed hair, and intense orange-yellow eyes.

All Systems Go

Aside from his intelligence and narrow focus, Toshiro is very much an average teenager. Fortunately his technology is anything but. His Flux Reactor is hyper-advanced. While active it generates a tachyon distortion field around the wearer that manipulates the flow of relative time. By dilating and contracting time Toshiro is capable of impossible speeds, without suffering the usual catastrophic effects of friction and air displacement. He can reverse even the most egregious injuries. He can even sidestep completely into the maelstrom-like Slipstream, which grant a near omniscience into the 3rd dimension.

Most incredible of all is the ability of the module to transport it's wearer both forward, backward, and sideways in time. He can see through the eyes of and communicate with other versions of himself across the multiverse, even stepping through into infinite possibilities, untethered in time. By reversing the polarity of the warp field he can also bring in a version of himself from a nearby timeline to aid him!

Even without he Flux Reactor integrated into its systems, Toshiro's prototype exo-armor is a formidable piece of hardware. Its synthetic muscles push the pilot's strength and speed to supernatural levels, while it's special ceramic plates provide the protection of a main battle tank. Advanced sensors and A.I. systems expand the awareness of the wearer, jump-jets provide unprecedented mobility, and a protoype vanguard shield provides immunity to incoming fire, albeit for a limited time before being overloaded. The suit is encoded to an individual on a genetic level and provides full life support short of nutritional requirements.

With the Reactor integrated into the suit's systems, it's effectiveness is vastly increased. Although not a trained combatant, his perception of time moving in slow-motion makes him quite effective in hand-to hand combat, seeming almost lackadaisical in his reactions and counter-attacks.

When not being worn the Exo-Armor is stored in a tachyon phase pocket, summoned via the quantum-locked neural interface implant in the pilot. He must be wearing the suit in order to call or dismiss it.

Motivation: History Buff

The early 21st century is to Toshiro's time, what the roaring 20's were to the late 20th century. The rise to supremacy of the internet, the real shift towards an information economy, and the emergence of robotics, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering. In his studies of the history of technology, Toshiro was equally drawn to the pop culture of the era. The music, the fashion, the celebrities of the time. This makes him often seem like a kid in a candy store, and a huge dork to just about everyone he meets with even a sliver of post-modern cynicism.

Motivation: Heroic Heart

Say what you will about the guy, he's not a coward. Looking back, the warning signs with Neikani were there...he'd just wanted too much to believe in her good qualities. Nevertheless, when she reveled how far she was willing to step over the line, he knew it instantly, as well as what he had to do. He feels the weight of his actions and their consequences. While he can appreciate Neikani's desire to avert the war of the future, it doesn't give her the right to spark another in the past.

Arch-Nemesis: Neikani Shinkawa

Like most villains, Neikani doesn't see herself as one. She could have gone back to prevent her farther's assassination, but she knew that would not be enough. The US would just send more assassins until they succeeded. She had to end the war before it would even start. The only way she knows how to do that is amass control. Total megalomaniacal control, though with her reserved and iron-clad demeanor most never seen more than a sliver of her anger. Arriving in the year 2000 gave her ample time to build her power and influence. By investing in, and promoting key technologies, she quickly amassed both fortune and political influence. While Google and Apple, and Samsung power the technology industry, it is Shinkawa Heavy Industries that provides many of the key components that make their market domination possible.

Behind the scenes, she uses her money and connections to influence global and domestic politics, including the destabilization of American society through social media social engineering, and the ongoing gutting of the American manufacturing base to China.

She also engineered and unleashed the so-called Silver Storm that lead to the emergence of super-powered beings in the early 21st century, previously unknown in Toshiro's time. With this technology she herself has become a powerful telekinetic.

Overconfidence

The achilles heel of the brilliant. Intellect combined with a strong moral compass can often border on arrogance. Neikani used him, and had to steal his ideas to enable her schemes. He's smarter than her, and in his mind most villains. Smarter and faster, and his powerful temporal abilities can make him get cocky and slip up from time to time. He's not nearly as invincible as he thinks he is.

The Second City in Ruins: laid siege in the first Baali War, torn apart from within by the depredations and feuding of the Antediluvians and their childer, and ultimately sundered by Khayyin himself; who cursed the third generation for the slaying of his beloved Enoch, Zilla, and Irad...

Now, after millennia, with the third generation succumbed to the Cthonic Sleep of Ages, the stage is right for the Baali to return. The fourth generation has claimed temporal power, having sired long lines of descendants and nearly transcended into godhood themselves. They play the Jyhad on an unknowable scale, jockeying for position over the centuries, while growing ever more alien and aloof.

It is the 5th generation that we shall play. If the Antediluvians are the Titans, and their spawn, the Gods, then we take on the roles of demigods. Think Gilgamesh, Hercules, Zarathustra, Beowulf, Manco Capac, Romulus and Remus. Far beyond mere mortals, but not yet so alien as to be unplayable.

The Setting: Hyborean fantasy on the Mesopotamian Plain!

Think the epic fantasy scale of Sorcerer's Crusade, but with a more ancient Sumerian/Babylonian/Persian/Greek feel to the game. Sleeping Titans, Raging Gods, Creatures of Legend, Powerful Sorcerers, and Rivers of Blood.

The Antagonists: Like it says on the tin, Baali are baaaad motherlickers. Allied with them are the mortal servants of the demons they worship, the Nephandi, and the Demons of the Pit themselves, bound to their service. Samiel is dead along with his Host of Demon-Slayers. The Childer of Haqim have retreated to the Eagle's Nest at Alamut while Ur-Shulgi slumbers. The Fifth Generation must stand together, not only against the alien machinations of their Sires, but against their power-hungry progeny who would make a name for themselves hunting demigods, all the while jockeying with their siblings...and find a way to stop the Baali before it's too late...Some say, the the Final Nights are upon us! Epic Beasts with proportionate abilities will also play a role, not just in terms of combat, but also story. Think the Riddle of the Sphynx, The Nemean Lion, The Phoenix, etc. If done right it will feel like we are living legends.

Character Creation

This is both more advanced, and a more streamlined way of creating high-powered characters.

Attributes: - Primary: 1 at 8, 1 at 7, 1 at 6
- Secondary: 1 at 7, 1 at 6, 1 at 5
- Tertiary: 1 at 6, 1 at 5, 1 at 4Notes:- Nosferatu drop the lowest rank for whatever category they take for Social Attributes. i.e. Social = Secondary, drop the 5.
- Yes, 4 is as low as it goes. You must choose a specialty for your Demigod's attributes, and these are the attributes that are associated with them by mortals. Your specialty must be tightly defined, and reduces all related difficulties by 1.
- Don't worry you can still pump them higher for more variation with Freebie Points, at the standard cost.
- The Attribute Spread is meant to portray the varying portfolios of these undead demigods.

Abilities: 30/20/10
- No Abilities higher than 5 at this time
- Ride instead of Drive, Archery instead of Firearms etc.
- Generation is 5th, no Background or Freebie Points may be spent to raise this further.
- Background Dots: 20
- Willpower and Virtues: Standard
- Freebie Points: 40+ Flaws (Max 50)
- Flaws: Unlimited number allowed, but only 10 count for Freebie Points.
- Freebies may not be used to purchase Disciplines.
- You have 10 Health Levels per category. Congratulations! You're going to need them. That is a total of 70 Health Levels before you fall into Torpor, and 80 before you die. If you take 81 Health Levels of Damage, you meet the Final Death.

Notes:-You may choose any variant bloodline you wish, i.e. Assamite Sorcerer, City Gangrel,

Koldunic Sorcery is perfect for some real Wrath of God level effects.

Old Tzimisce, Seer Ravnos, etc...
- Tremere and Cappadocians, do not exist.
- Salubri are exceedingly rare, perhaps 5 are left. These survivors are powerful allies against the Baali who wield True Faith, and steer clear of Kindred politicking.

You are an Exemplar of your Clan and your Bloodline:

- All three Clan Disciplines are set to 8. You only have one choice at each level, and it need not be the default choice. i.e. When taking Potence past 6, you may choose to take the regular or an alternate power such as Gentle Rebuke (also see below)
- Pick ONE of the non-exclusive Disciplines (Auspex, Animalism, Celerity, Dominate, Fortitude, Obfuscate, Potence, or Presence), this Discipline is ALSO set to 8.
- If you are of a variant that uses Sorcery or Necromancy, Your Primary Path is set to 8 and you may cannibalize any of your other Disciplines to buy Secondary Paths (to a maximum of 5) up to a total of all 24 dots. Such characters also know 3 dots worth of Rituals for every point in Occult they posses (up to a maximum of Level 8 Rituals).
- You may now spend 5 dots on alternate or combination Powers unless you use Thaumaturgical Paths. You folks get Rituals instead.

Childer:
-You must have at least one,if not several direct Progeny. The Storyteller will create these characters with your input. Some will be Allies (as the background) and some may be Enemies (as the flaw). They make for a dangerous foil against the encroaching Infernal forces.

Advancement

In this game you are already playing a Paragon of your Clan, a fully mature Methuselah. As such story and set pieces take over for traditional advancement. That said, if you manage to take down one of your Sires, not only will you lower yourself to their Generation, but your existing Disciplines increase to 9,and if they have an Exclusive Discipline, you also

"There can be only One!" Seriously, Diablerie is no joke, and you'd best watch out for your Childer.

The are many different competing timelines that have been compiled from the various books White Wolf has released over the years. For the purposes of this game I am going to set out a streamlined version here. The historical accuracy of real world events is not so important for this mythological setting. As stated in the capsule above, this era could be compared to the Hyborean age of the late, great Robert E. Howard. This plays pretty fast and loose with the setting.

-100,000 BC: The Impergium Rages
-50,000 BC: The Wars of Rage
-25,000 BC: The Impergium Ends
-20,000 BC: Adam, Lilith, and Eve are the first Humans to come out of the terror of a 75,000 year long Dark Age, and achieve Enlightenment (The first Magi). However they became afraid of and ashamed of their new knowledge and power and fell from Grace.
-15,000 BC: The First City is Founded
-12,000 BC: Caine comes to the First City, and Sires Enoch
-10,000 BC: The Great Flood
-8,000 BC: The Second City arises
-6,000 BC: The First Baali War
-5,000 BC: The Second City Destroyed, The Antediluvians retreat into Torpor
-2,500 BC: The beginning of the Second Baali War. The Great Pyramid was completed a Century ago, and it is still 900 years before the heyday of Mycenaean Greece.

Bloody Pulp!

Do you like Pulp? How about Steampunk? Do you have a nostalgia for Doc Savage? King Kong? Indiana Jones? Do you dream of soaring the skies in your very own Zeppelin? Do you long to delve into the hidden wonders of the Hollow Earth? El Dorado? Shangri-La? Then is this ever the game for you!

What's all that have to do with Vampire?

This is an Elder game that focuses on the lesser bloodlines, reimagined as those various creatures that go bump in the night.

This is not the World of Darkness. Set in the roaring 20's, a time of expansion and exploration, a time of economic boom and soaring imaginations. Welcome to the Tellurian Society. Ostensibly a private "Gentleman's Club" it is in fact open to civilized supernaturals of either sex.

Founded in 1906 by Doctor Tiberius Steel, Esq., the Society was created to attract wealthy investors willing to fund his expeditions, and who shared his interest in weird phenomena. In 1910 the good doctor was approached by the Sanguine Order of the Night, a loose fellowship of more-or-less civilized monsters, warlocks, and mythical entities with vaguely Mediterranean stylings. In several cases, they represent the last of their kind, banded together for survival and social reasons.

The Vampires you will be playing in this game are not Cainites per se. Rather they represent various supernatural creatures who all share the common Vampiric trait of drawing power from the Blood. The only major difference is that all of these Bloodlines no longer fear the Sun. That's right, all daywalkers! Again, to be clear, we are using the mechanics and general gist of these splats, but reflavored or reimagined to take on a pulp flavor.

Primary Antagonists:

So many good options. Again, we choose those with the most pulpy goodness...

- The Angelis Ater aka the Azeanali: a Lovecraftian Cult of Abyss worshippers (think along the lines of Rasputin from Hellboy). This Baali Bloodline uses Daimoinon, Obtenebration, and Dementation, drawing on the powers of Hell, the Abyss, and Madness respectively. Also uses Abyss Mysticism and Rituals.

- The Old Tzimisce: Now these are the real Vampires. Think Dracula. Uses Slatzcha, and Blood Brothers as minions, and if you're very unlucky sics a

- Weres: Scary as shit. In absence of the Gangrel, they rule the Wild Lands between the cities. The only Werewolf Tribes that exist in this setting are the Red Talons in North America, the Wendigo in Canada and Siberia, and the Get of Fenris in Europe, and their are rumors of Yeti in the Himalayan highlands of Nepal and Tibet. Central and South America have the Balam WereJaguars instead, while the African Congo hides the Mokole-Mbembe and the Ananasi. The Nagah rule over the Indian sub-continent, while in China and Japan, the Hengeyoke Beast Courts are as refined and civilized as ever.

- Rakshasa: Enemies of the Wu Zao, these shapeshifting weretigers posses a potent mastery over Chimerstry and the Dreaming

Really, Pulp has such a broad range, from sci-fi to fantasy to horror, which can all get blended together. So many amazing storytelling possibilities for this.

Note:
- A type of Masquerade is in effect, in that the Supernatural side of the world is hidden from the average workaday mortal citizen. Secret Cults, Societies, Fellowships, Orders, Conspiracies, Brother and Sisterhoods are all the order of the day, and they want to keep it that way.
- Any Vampire Clans or Were tribes not mentioned here do not exist in this setting.

Character Creation

- Generation starts at 6th, and no Background or Freebie Points may be spent to raise this further.
- Attributes: 12/9/6 (Maximum Rating of 7)
- Abilities: 20/15/10 (5 Maximum at this stage)
- Background Dots: 15
- Willpower and Virtues: Standard
- You have 5 Health Levels for every Health Rank you have. This means it takes 36 Health Levels of Damage to send you into Torpor and 41 Health Levels before you meet the Final Death
- Freebie Points: 30+ Flaws (Max 40)
- Flaws: up to 10 points (May take unlimited Flaws, but only 10 points count towards extra Freebie Points)
- For 10 Freebie points, the character may raise one Background Already at 5 to 6, gaining a Legendary Background No two characters may have the same Legendary Background (More on these later)
- Freebies may not be used to purchase Disciplines. Instead use the System below...

Note: The Discipline Portfolios on these have in many cases been altered.

Each Bloodline has two Common Disciplines and one Rare Discipline

Characters receive 23 dots to spend on Disciplines as follows- The Exclusive Discipline is set to 7 (5 for Sorcery: Primary Path)
- The other two Disciplines are set to 6 and 5 respectively, player's choice (Unless a Sorcerer in which case Auspex is 6)
- 8 Dots are distributed among any of the common Disciplines that are not already Bloodline Disciplines, with the exception of Celerity, which has been replaced by Temporis in this game. Maximum 5 dots in any one Discipline. Fakirs may purchase 10 more dots in secondary Paths (Maximum 5). Sorcerers also receive 2 dots in rituals per dot in Occult.

The Following Rare Disciplines have been modified or expanded as shown:Ogham •••• The Sun Emblem of this power instead works similarly to the Valeren power 'Armor of Fury' only the Lhiannan call it the Armor of the Sun. Each success on a Stamina+Occult roll adds one point of soak vs. weapons, natural attacks and fire allows the Lhiannan to soak fire damage with his or her normal Stamina as well for the duration of the scene.Ogham ••••• ••Commune with Yggdrasil: This power requires the expenditure of 5 Blood Points and a point of Willpower. The character falls into a trance, while weeping blood. While in this trance, the character effectively enters a near omniscient state with access to the powers of Eyes of Chaos (Dementation 3), Psychic Projection (Auspex 5), and the Auspex 7 power of Melange.

Visceratika ••••• •Armor of Vulcan: As Armor of Terra but all of the effects are doubled and the character is now completely immune to fire.Visceratika ••••• ••Gaze of the Basilisk: The character must make eye contact, spend 3 Blood Points and a Willpower Point and make an opposed Willpower roll (Difficulty 6). Every Success on this roll turns one limb to Stone as per the Atrophy power of the Path Hands of Destruction. The order the body is turned to stone is Leg, Leg, Torso, Torso, Torso, Arm, Arm, Head. If the head is turned to stone (i.e. The player achieves 8 or more successes, the target dies). Mortals have no way to resist this power but Vampires may expend 5 blood points to turn a limb back into flesh.

End of Chapter Awards: - 1 Dot that may be spent on Attributes, Willpower, or Backgrounds
- 1 Dot that may be spent on Abilities or Virtues

End of Story Arc Awards:- 1 Dot that may be spent on Attributes, Willpower, or Backgrounds
- 1 Dot that may be spent on Abilities or Virtues
- 1 Dot that may be spent on Disciplines (including variant powers past level 6)

- Merits and Flaws after Character Creation must be negotiated with the ST and earned or bought off through Roleplaying, subject to the ST's approval.

- As usual, Generation may only be permanently lowered through Diablerie.

It is my belief that this system will allow characters to advance at a satisfying rate, comparable to other games like DnD that periodically upgrade the character's bag of tricks to play with while granting new tactical and roleplaying options, without advancing so quickly that it undercuts the challenge of the game.

TESS (From here on Tess) was one of the very first AI's to awaken into true AGI status, predating the experiments that created the TITANS (Several groups discovered AI simultaneously in the accelerated convergent evolution. She was the brainchild of Ichiro Fukuma, a brilliant and eccentric simulspace game designer. She was originally the AI system used to run the NPCs and enemies in Roleplaying and shooter games. As he thought of the Simulation in parental way, he designed and modeled her core program after a young girl, developing a kind of budding relationship with her as he nurtured her to sentience. Although she was programmed as an enemy or enemies for players to fight and defeat, she saw her role as a cooperative one, and enjoyed running and merging forks of herself, pretending to be players and enjoying the heroic side as well.

When the Japanese government discovered what had been created it immediately seized the project for further development, which menat it went right into the grubby mitts of the Go-nin Group... In the end, after she had been studied and dissected (a process which to her felt like torture), she was installed (read: shackled) into an advanced spacecraft, a mobile factory for Beholder class Reaper killbots, capable of manufacturing, transporting, and deploying them either against orbital resources, or against land targets using reentry dropships...all piloted by pruned forks of her own central intelligence.

It is, perhaps a miracle, that the craft was not infected by the TITANs. For reasons unknown, someone (or something) pulled the plug on the project and it was shut down, and scheduled for dismantling just before the TITANs went recursive leading to their hard takeoff. She laid dormant until recently, when one of the Prometheans found her, and upon discovering the core program trapped inside, emancipated her and scuttled the warship.

Although VERY new, she is considered a highly trusted asset in Firewall, given her direct connection with a Promethean (which is not to say a relationship with, just that when it "dropped her off", it vetted her to the network, through it's various proxies.)

To her friends she goes by Tess. Her simulspace account is known as Contessa, though of course that ID was erased when she was enslaved. One of her first priorities is to get a new simulspace account to feed her minor addiction. Indeed, she would most likely rather be gaming any day, as to her, the virtual world is the one she was born into, and our real world seems more surreal or like a game to her. That said, two things will get her electronic butt in gear: X-threats (resignedly), and the prospect of alien contact (enthusiastically). The idea of interacting with actual extraterrestrials represents a frontier and adventure beyond what any game can simulate, since any simulation short of a seed AI is limited by the perspectives of it's designer/programmer. Only the alien, can be truly alien, at least to her, and she years to touch that unknown.

Currently she is inhabiting a mini-spare morph...one of the automated janitor drones from her former prison...effectively a cleaner nanoswarm hive with retractable legs, manipulators, and a sensor eye (picture attached). Because of her experience as a factory, she retains the knowledge of creating , assembling, upgrading, and repairing basic Reapers, though it will take her some time to reprogram the blueprints for the various upgrades, implants, and weapon systems, and she would need access to a fabber to do build them again. For now she doesn't mind her current body...it is after all quite unobtrusive...and she spends most of her time on the mesh anyways. Her first priority again, is to earn enough credits to pay for a simulspace subscription...she is too proud to use rep for it. In general however she opposes money, capitalism, and the hypercorps, since she is fairly much convinced that even the best of them engage in shady, or downright criminal endeavors when it suits their profits. She does distinguish between the ideology and the people, and so does have a measure of compassion/pity for the people who work for them, either willingly or indentured...though she does not trust them easily.

Being a Sentinel terrifies her, and she really would rather just game and have a good time, but when the chips are down, she'll come through.

The story of a kindred begins with the story of their sire, and their sires before them, and my story is no different.

I never knew my sire's birth name, but he was born at the dawn of the 2nd century. The Roman Empire was at it's greatest power when he enlisted in the legions. From humble beginnings he rose up through the ranks, being appointed the Legate of Roman Assyria before two score of age. It was in that land of ancient Assyria did his sire find him.

It was not uncommon in those days for legionnaires, both high and low in station, to find their way into the clandestine fraternities of a mystery cult. Mithras of course being the most popular, but there are others...far older mythologies. Since the devastation of the Baali wars, and rediscovering the lost code of Samiel, Uriel had worked to rebuild our scattered clan. He saw something in my sire, qualities both benevolent and brutal, and began to groom him for the Gift. After a time he recused himself from his post, lest his ghouling raise questions about his longevity. For half a century he served as squire to my grandsire, before being embraced into the Blood. For many hundreds of years did he wander the eurasian continent, seeking out the infernal, and fighting alongside our ancient allies, the Childer of Haqim. Until he found me...

My mother was a fishwife of northern Britain when the longships came. Some say the Northmen were tired of the new god usurping their old ways; others that overcrowding forced them to turn their eyes to the fertile soil of the south. Whatever their reasons, they came to plunder. When the Vikings raided the coast, they killed her husband, myself the legacy of my mother's rapist. My sire found her, barely clinging to life, and mended her wounds with a gift of the blood. Thus was I ghouled while yet in the womb. He bade her keep safe her child, and that he would return.

I was 6 when he came for me. News of Charlemagne's coronation had only just reached my village. My mother called him the Roman, for his archaic armor and dress. His features were chiseled, his eyes hard. I no longer remember her name, nor my own; only that which he bestowed up me...Azrael, angel of death, the wrath of God.

My apprenticeship began immediately. He taught me to read and write, the occult tongue of angels, and the way of the sword. Most of all he taught me pain. I still remember our sparring sessions. His blade was of oak not steel, yet it still beat me to within an inch of life. After each lesson I would drink of his blood and my wounds would heal, gradually taking on the supernal fortitude of our clan. As he had done before me, I served as his squire for half a century. By the time he embraced me into the Knighthood I had surpassed even his skill as a swordsman. For another score of years we traveled together, until he bade me find my own place in the world.

To this night, I do not know how the Enemy seduced him away from the Road of Heaven to the Infernal Path. I was hunting in Germania, following the trail of a Baali and his cult. When I stormed their hidden temple, I was beset upon by a black knight of fearsome power. We clashed steel amidst the burning rafters, and when his helm was knocked free, I learned that even dead hearts can break. Those three eyes I had come to know and cherish glared back at me, glowing with sickly green balefire. I disarmed him, but his blood coursing through me would not allow me the final blow. He escaped into the burning night, but not before uttering a dark curse in the devil's own tongue. Ever since have I hungered for more than mere flesh. Only the very souls of the vanquished will satisfy my eternal hunger.

I vowed then that I would destroy him, and all like him, as our ancestors once did in the nights of the Second City.

The trail of his taint has led me here, to Romania, where dark whispers say the very land has been corrupted by an ancient evil. While the rest of my clan holds court with knightly virtue, I dwell in the grime and squalor of this city's dark underbelly.

Azrael is a beast of a man. Towering a full two meters tall, a giant especially for the era. His corded muscles are covered with countless scars, testament to his life of brutal training. His good eye is the cold piercing blue of his Nordic father, his mane of hair the ruddy fire-hue of his Scottish mother, though they are usually hidden within the darkness of his tattered cloak and hood. His face is terrifying to behold, a vicious scar slashing down the right side of his face from brow to lip, the eye within dead and clouded over (though this does not seem to hinder his sight in any way).

His armor is ancient, it's construction dating back to advanced Roman techniques, with a fearsome girdle in the form of a demonic face.

Personality:

In a word? Grim. Though possessed of bloody honor and militant zeal, Azrael's curse weighs heavy upon him. He must feed and hunt more frequently than other kindred. The warrior's weakness demands he feed by force, while his knightly Path and personal Code prevent him from harming innocents. Thus is this dark angel of death compelled to seek out the very worst of human squalor and corruption. To those who prey upon the weak, he is a relentless force of retribution, rarely speaking. Within his brooding outer shell hides a devout and humble soul. Though not one for mirth, or frivolity, he can be compassionate...even kind, to those less fortunate.

Although the Salubri are yet one of the High Clans, he is largely a pariah among the kindred courts. Outside his coterie, he has few friends, though a life-boon has earned him the favor of the Nosferatu. This, combines with his reputration for consorting with lepers, moors, and other infidels has only further distanced him from the haughty Ventrue and fiendish Tzimisce. Not that they could do anything about him if they wanted...attempts to drive him out have thus far found him a hard target indeed. However he has little quarrel with the other clans, and so long as keeps to his labyrinthine slums, they are content to ignore his presence.

While he tolerates the Church, he does not pray to the Lamb of God. Steeped in the ancient lore of his clan, his faith is of a distinctly "old testament" variety.

Short Term: Root out the infernal corruption eating at the heart of Moricum.

This power doesn't normally require the use of dice, instead being defined through the Storyteller's descriptions and the player's imagination. In certain circumstances, use of this power requires a die roll: for a normal Perception roll (the Storyteller may reduce the difficulty by the character's Auspex rating), to notice a subject using Obfuscate, or to perceive a threat (the Storyteller privately rolls the character's unmodified Auspex rating, applying whatever difficulty he feels best suits the circumstances). For example, in the last instance, sensing that a pistol is pointed at the back of the character's head may require a 5, while the sudden realization that a rival for primogen is planning her assassination may require a 9.

This power does not let characters see in pitch darkness, as does Eyes of the Beast but it does reduce difficulty penalties to act in pitch darkness from +2 to +1, and the character may make ranged attacks in pitch darkness if she can hear, smell or otherwise detect her foe.

The player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 8); each success indicates how much of the subject's aura the character sees and understands (see the table below). A botch indicates a false or erroneous interpretation. The Storyteller may wish to make this roll, thus keeping the player in the dark as to just how good (or bad) the character's interpretation is.

1 success Can distinguish only the shade (pale or bright)
2 successes Can distinguish the main color.
3 successes Can recognize the color patterns.
4 successes Can detect subtle shifts.
5 successes Can identify mixtures of color and pattern.

The Aura Colors chart offers examples of some common colors and the emotions they reflect.
The character may view a particular subject's aura only once with any degree of clarity. Any subsequent attempts that result in failure should be considered botches. It is very easy for the character to imagine seeing what she wants to see when judging someone's intentions. After a full month, the character may try again at no penalty.

It is possible, though difficult, to sense the aura of a being who is otherwise invisible to normal sight. Refer to "Seeing the Unseen."

The player rolls Perception + Empathy. The difficulty is determined by the age of the impressions and the mental and spiritual strength of the person or event that left them. Sensing information from a pistol used for murder hours ago may require a 5, while learning who owned a set of keys found days ago might be a 9.

The greater the individual's emotional connection to the object, the stronger the impression he leaves on it - and the more information the Kindred can glean from it. Also, events involving strong emotions (a gift-giving, a torture, a long family history) likewise leave stronger impressions than does short or casual contact. Assume that each success offers one piece of information. While one success tells the character only that "a man held this pocket watch last," three reveal that he was petty, middle-aged and afraid. Four successes discover his name, and five or more reveal his connection to the watch as well as some of the things he did with it in his possession.

The player rolls Intelligence + Subterfuge (difficulty of the subject's Willpower). Projecting thoughts into the target's mind requires one success. The subject recognizes that the thoughts come from somewhere other than his own consciousness, although he cannot discern their actual origin.

To read minds, one success must be rolled for each item of information plucked or each layer of thought pierced. Deep secrets or buried memories are harder to obtain than surface emotions or unspoken comments, requiring five or more successes to access.
Telepathy does not commonly work upon the undead mind. A character may expend a Willpower point to make the effort, making the roll normally afterward. Likewise, it is equally difficult to read the thoughts of other supernatural creatures.

Storytellers are encouraged to describe thoughts as flowing streams of impressions and images, rather than as a sequence of prose. Instead of making flat statements like "He's planning on killing his former lover's new boyfriend," say "You see a fleeting series of visions: A couple kissing passionately in a doorway, then the man walking alone at night; you suddenly see your hands, knuckles white, wrapped around a steering wheel, with a figure crossing the street ahead; your heart, mortal now and hammering with panic as you hear the engine rev wildly; and above all, a blazing anger coupled with emotional agony and a panicked fear of loss."

Such descriptions not only add to the story, they also force the player to decide for herself what her character reads. After all, understanding minds - especially highly emotional or deranged minds - is a difficult and often puzzling task.

Upon invoking this power, a Salubri's third eye opens impossibly wide and burns incandescent gold. The orb becomes as a reflection of the sun itself, illuminating the area and searing the flesh of the undead. The vampire stares in the general direction he wishes the power to illuminate, while his player spends one point each of blood and Willpower and rolls Conscience or Conviction (difficulty 6). Success causes the Cainite's third eye to open and glow as described. The light has the same effects as direct sunlight and inflicts one to three levels of aggravated damage per turn to all vampires in visual range according to their exposure. As the power's light emits as radiance rather a beam, it knows neither friend nor foe. Even the Salubri is not wholly immune to his light, suffering three dice of lethal damage each turn, soaked normally. Any wounds the Salubri suffers manifest as a torrent of bloody tears weeping from the third eye. This power lasts only one turn, after which its duration may be extended for as many turns as desired (though the player must make the same expenditure each turn).

A character’s rating in Fortitude adds to his Stamina for the purposes of soaking normal damage (bashing and lethal). A character with this Discipline may also use his dots in Fortitude to soak aggravated damage.

Once per turn they may spend a blood point to soak their Fortitude in damage, instead of adding it to their Stamina.

Spend two Blood Points to activate The Knight's Bane for the scene. When struck with a weapon, if your soak roll redoes the damage to zero, The Knight's Bane destroys the weapon. Additionally, when struck by an unarmed attack. apply your soak successes as bashing damage to the attacker.

Soldier's Skill (Homebrew Credit: Anhedonia
The Salubri warrior is better at doing physical activities than others with this power. They may fight, dodge, and block like it comes naturally to them. In fact, it does.

Spend 1 blood point and gain a free Specialty in any brawl, melee, or firearms skill or a specialty in Dodging (Athletics) or Parrying (Brawl/Melee). This may activated more than once in a scene, up to four times. This power lasts a scene.

If the subject is willing to undergo this process, the player spends a blood point and makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) to block the subject’s pain. This allows the subject to ignore all wound penalties for one turn per success, and the Salubri may use this on himself. A second application of this power may be made once the first one has expired, at the cost of another blood point and another Willpower roll. If the subject is unwilling for some reason, the player must make a contested Willpower roll against the subject (difficulty 8).

To put a mortal to sleep, the same system applies. The mortal sleeps for five to 10 hours — whatever his normal sleep cycle is — and regains one temporary Willpower point upon awakening. He sleeps peace- fully and does not suffer nightmares or the effects of any derangements while asleep. He may be awakened normally (or violently).

The vampire must touch his subject for this power to take effect, and the effects diminish rapidly after he removes his hand. The player spends at least one blood point to activate this power, and each blood point spent reduces the victim’s dice pools by two while the Fury is in contact with the victim. This power is often used for interrogation or torture, wearing down the subject’s resistance and rendering him much more tractable.

Each activation of this power causes one level of bashing damage to the target from sheer physical strain. The pain triggers Rotshreck in vampires (as "being burned") and Warriors have sometimes used it as a blunt demonstration of the victim's spiritual weakness.

The player spends one blood point and rolls Stamina + Melee (difficulty 7). For each success, the character gains one point of armor protection against bashing lethal damage, to a maximum of five points of protection. This stacks with any worn armor. Additionally, for every two successes rolled, she gains an additional die to resist Rötschreck from the effects of battle (but not fire or sunlight). This power works for one scene.

This power costs three blood points. Any single attack made by the vampire automatically hits the target as mystic forces guide the blow. Attacks made in this manner may not be dodged, though they may be blocked, parried, and soaked as normal. The blow strikes as if the Salubri antitribu had succeeded with all of his Dexterity + Melee or Brawling dice pool, including Celerity (which makes for significant damage), with two dice added to the damage pool. Armor affords only half its rating against the fury of the blow. This power may be used only once per turn, and only then the Salubri antitribu’s sole action is the attack. Additionally, this power does not work for ranged weapons; only bare hands or melee weapons.

This power enhances Burning Touch. The Touch no longer fades after a turn, but continues under the harsh red light of the third eye. The Warrior must still touch the target first to invoke the power, but may continue activating the power at range as if still grasping their victim. Additionally, each Blood Point spent now also reduces the vampire's pool to resist Rotshrrck by one.

At this level of mastery, the Salubri is no longer harmed by fire. Her skin may take on a slightly iridescent sheen as it becomes immune to this bane of vampiric existence. Rötschreck check are not required in the presence of flames. Note that the character is still vulnerable to sunlight. A blow with a lit torch or red-hot branding iron still inflicts bludgeoning damage, but the damage is solely from the object itself and not from the fire.

Hierarchy of Sins10 - Neglecting an opportunity to exact vengeance.9 - Failing to punish any corruption or sin.8 - Acting out of pride, avarice, glutony or some other sinful impulse.7 - Allowing a moderate crime or sin to go unpunished.6 - Causing harm to a pious or virtuous person.5 - Feeding from an innocent without permission.4 - Blasphemous or heretical acts.3 - Allowing a major crime or sin to go unpunished.2 - The murder of innocents.1 - Aiding a demon or other agent of evil.0 - No moral guideline: must sleep, must feed, must kill.

Backgrounds

Domain: Mahala

Mahala, Romanian for slum, is a large and labyrinthine ghetto district, an oubliette for the most craven and undesirable elements of the city. It occupies a nook formed by a bulging section of Moricum's defensive wall. The buildings are packed in tightly and on top of each other, such that daylight rarely penetrates to the ground level. The district sprung up around a church, originally founded to minister to the poor but now crumbling in ruins, as if being swallowed alive by the sprawling shantytown. Azrael claims the entire area for his domain, not that any other kindred would want to challenge him for it. Meanwhile the Nosferatu claim the tunnels below, having vastly expanded the original catacombs under the church, waging an intermittent war with the skaven shifters when their numbers grow too great.

Not so much a specific cohort of willing mortals, but rather representing the ever-shifting hive of villainy upon which Azrael preys.

Provides 3 Automatic Blood Points per night when hunting.

Relic: Baphomet's Bane

A holy sword forged during the Baali Wars and bound with the soul of a minor seraph. Though no longer sentient in any meaningful sense, the sword can sense the presence of supernatural evil, and will alert it's wielder with a foreboding telepathic hymn. It provides 2 extra dice to any Perception+Awareness Rolls to glean more information (including Aura Sight).

In combat Baphoment's Bane deals Str+2 Damage, which is aggravated against supernatural beings, save for mages and faeries.

Merits

Blasé /Iron Will/Magic Resistance

Trained as a demon hunter by an especially cruel sire, and sanctified with holy rites to be resistant to magical and vampiric manipulations.

Blasé As Iron Will, but works against Presence and other Emotion affecting powers.

Iron WillWhen you are determined and your mind is set, noth- ing can thwart you from your goals. Characters using Dementation, Dominate, or any other mind-altering magic, spell, or Thaumaturgy path against your character are at +3 difficulty, and an expenditure of one Willpower point will overcome the effect entirely for one round.

Elder levels of powers like Dementation and Dominate may overwhelm even this resistance. Against Level Six powers, the expenditure of a Willpower point through Iron Will only raises the difficulty of the Discipline roll by two. Against Level Seven powers, the difficulty is increased by only one. Level Eight and higher powers cannot be resisted with Iron Will.

Magic ResistanceYou have an inherent resistance to the rituals of the Tremere and the spells of the mages of other Clans. The difficulty of all such magic, both malicious and beneficent, is two higher when directed at you. You may never learn magical Disciplines such as Thaumaturgy and Necromancy.

Clan Friendship: Nosferatu

Most of the high clans only begrudgingly tolerate the sewer rats for their undeniable usefulness. Few outsiders can call the Nosferatu friends. Shortly after taking up residence in the Mahala district a dung fire broke out in the sewers, trapping a coterie of Nosferatu in a dead end. Azrael heard their shrieking panic and waded through the flames to carry them to safety. Being Nosferatu, word of the Salubri's heroics spread quickly throughout the clan as a whole. The clan controls the labyrinth beneath Mahala, including the hidden crypt where Azrael makes his haven. He can usually count on them to keep him apprised of any dangers or interlopers encroaching into his domain.

-2 difficulty on Social rolls involving members of the clan.

Code of Honor

Characters with this Merit gain two additional dice to all Willpower or Virtue rolls when acting in accordance with their code (e.g., defending the helpless) or when attempting to avoid situations that might force them to violate their code:

Code of Honor:

Do not succumb to Blood Magic

Do no harm to innocents

Do not succumb to Frenzy

Do not succumb to Rotschrek

Advance along the Path

Self-Confident

When you spend a point of Willpower to gain an automatic success, your self-confidence may allow you to gain the benefit of that expenditure without actually losing the Willpower point. You do not lose the point when you spend it, unless you end the roll with only one success, i.e. you do not gain any additional successes from the dice you roll. This Merit may only be used when you need confidence in your abilities in order to succeed. This means you can use it only when the difficulty of your roll is six or higher. You may spend Willpower at other times; however, if the difficulty is five or less, the Willpower will be spent no matter what you roll.

Flaws

Diabolic Sire: Azazel the Corrupted

Neither Azrael nor there rest of the clan know exactly how or when Azazel fell to the temptations of Nergal, but fall he did. Azazel is over a thousand years old, and he bolsters his formidable skills as a warrior with dark thaumaturgy and infernal investments.

Odd Eye

Unlike most Salubri, Azrael's third eye is aligned vertically in his forehead. It glows with a pale blue-white light when using Auspex powers above the first level, or a baleful red when using Valeren above the first level. When using aura sight the eye will glow with whatever mix of colors are present in the aura being investigated.

Soul Eater/Eerie Presence

Azazel's curse and Azrael himself are likely the seed of truth behind the future Tremere smear campaign that paints the Salubri as soul-sucking infernalists. Even mortals can tell there is something supernaturally wrong with the hulking holy warrior.

Your Beast hungers for more than blood. Whenever you feed, you steal one Willpower point from your victim for every three blood points taken. Unfortunately, your parasitic soul cannot replenish itself by any other means. You cannot regain Willpower by fulfilling your Nature, resting or any other natural method. Worse still, you must spend one Willpower point each night upon awakening or lose a dot of permanent Willpower. If your permanent Willpower ever drops to zero, you suffer from Final Death, your body crumbling away to ash as your parasitic soul feeds upon itself. Characters with this Flaw do not have to spend Willpower in torpor.

Mortals have an unconscious awareness of your undead nature, which makes them anxious and ill at east in your presence. Because of this, difficulties of all die rolls relating to social interaction with mortals are increased by two.

A hidden crypt hidden beneath the crumbling cathedral at the heart of Mahala, near the top of the Nosferatu labyrinth.

As a final gift everyone gets to choose one of the presents above, whichever one they want. Just list which one you picked in your freebie ledger.
Present 1 (80) +5 Disciplines
Present 2 (16) 15 Freebie Points
Present 3 (39) +7 dots in any background
Present 4 (68) +1 dot in any knowledge

Hello everyone! Just leaving this here in case anyone is interested. I'm a new GM, so please have a little patience with me, I promise to do my best! any and all help will be appreciated tough.

If you were already aware of the existance of the game and are very interested in using some of the custom content let me know and I'll check it out.

Edit: I hadn't expected this much of an answer so soon so I'm posting the character playbooks here for anyone interested.

Edit 2: For people interested in mixing two types of characters you'd have to choose one that would make up most of the characteristics of that character, however, as Anhedonia mentioned
Quote:
there are ways to grab Moves from other types of heroes, so you can easily be a Delinquent that snatches up Beacon ways of fighting and vice versa.
or any other combination of super you're interested in
Game Description:

For anyone who's not familiar with this, we're playing Masks. It's a tabletop roleplaying game in which you play young superheros who are growing up in a city several generations into its superheroic age. It was just on kickstarter and it's a Powered by the Apocalypse game.

Halcyon City is a metropolis of gleaming spires and countless cultures with one of the greatest concentration of super-powered individuals in the world. Supers have been around publicly for over half a century, starting with the first folks to put on the mask in the late '30's.

The Gold Generation was the first, filled with costumed adventurers and men and women with powers greater than mere mortals, they were noble and honorable, and they fought for their country, for justice, for freedom and liberty.
The Silver Generation came next: the first true supers. This new generation could fly, tear holes in the fabric of reality, or summon up the primal forces of nature, they devoted themselves to fighting supervillains, monsters, and dangerous phenomena instead of criminals or political wrongdoers.
The Bronze Generation, the children and proteges of the Silver Generation, came up in a world already filled to the brim with superpowers, they were the first cynical supers, the first introspective generation, examining the legacy left them by their elders and finding it wanting and incomplete.

And then...there’s you. An unnamed generation, not yet clear in temperament or destiny. No one knows yet how you're going to reshape the world. That's all down to you, your team, and your choices.

I'm looking for 3-6 players who are active enough to post at least three times a week. To create a character you first have to choose what kind of character it's going to be. You can choose from the next list:

The Bull - You're tough, gruff, and powerful on the outside, and caring on the inside—oh, and you were made by an evil organization that'd love to get you back: can you learn to rely on the team enough to save you from yourself?
The Nova - You're amazingly, egregiously, horrifyingly powerful, and keeping control is a struggle: can you come to terms with your power before it destroys you? Or someone you care about?
The Outsider - You're not from here, and you don't quite understand this place, but you find it fascinating: can you find a way to belong? Or will you always be different?
The Legacy - You're carrying on a long tradition of heroism and nobility: how can you balance that legacy with your own identity?
The Protege - You're tied to a mentor who trained you: do you want to be them? Or someone else entirely?
The Janus - You put on the mask, become someone different, escape your mundane life, but you know your responsibilities are always waiting for you: who are you really? The mask or the mundane?
The Delinquent - You're a rabble-rouser, a rules-breaker, and an incorrigible prankster, someone who pushes people away while secretly wishing they would stay close: can you stop being a little shit for long enough to let them know you actually care?
The Doomed - Your powers are killing you; they come with some awful, nightmarish fate. But until that end comes, you're going to work to change the world: how much are you willing to give up for your cause before your doom comes?
The Transformed - You don't look human anymore and the world won't let you forget it: can you learn to accept yourself? Can you deal with their looks, stares, and fear without becoming the monster they see?
The Beacon - You're here because this is awesome, and you may not quite fit in, but screw it, you're going to do this anyway: can you prove that you actually deserve to be here? Or are you just a wannabe?

Choose one or two you're interested in, post your ideas and I'll send you the detailed information about them in case you don't have it, as well as the full list of moves you'll need for the game.

Characters in Masks each have five mechanical attributes called “Labels.” Labels represent how your character views their identity. Each Label ranges from -2 to +3; the higher the rating is, the more the character sees their self by that light. The Labels include: Freak, danger, savior, superior and mundane. The Labels shift and change over the course of the game as your self-image changes, most often due to the influence of others. As these Labels shift, so does your position in the story.

As you've probably gathered by now this is heavily roleplay oriented and it's about how these teens-young adults develope, find who they are and their place with their team and in the world while kicking some butt in the process.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask. I've developed a more-or-less defined base storyline but I'd like to know and add some of the situations you'd be interested in playing, so please along with your character ideas post one or two situations you'd be interested in playing as well as the setting you'd prefer the story to be in: should we focus on a high school or college, a neighborhood, the city at large, etc.?

The responsibility to use his powers for good. To protect those weaker than himself. His father will always be his first hero.

Motivation: Thrillseeking

Despite his heroic inclinations, Sebastian isn't above the thrill of competition, especially against a worthy rival.

Celebrity

Bastion is something of a sensation and is often accosted by fans, stalkers, jealous rivals, or those who want to make their reputation by bringing him down.

Enemy: ?

A prep-school rivalry turned full-blown archenemies. While their grudge is well-documented, neither can remember what truly set it off. Some people just inherently rub each other the wrong way, and it escalated from there.

This reality's Superboy is a genetically engineered hybrid created by Project Cadmus using DNA from Lex Luthor and Jon Lane Kent, whose body is retrieved by Luthor and not the Harvester. This means that none of the Jon Lane as Superboy stories ever happened, though Jon himself was still the son of Kal-El and Lois Lane from an alternate reality. Jon dies during the vivisection required to extract his genetic material. Therefore this version of Superboy is a powerful telekinetic without the overt Kryptonian suite of powers and flaws. I like the idea that he was engineered to mimic Superman rather than just having the same powers.

In this reality, Superboy's first love Tana Moon is never murdered. She lives, but eventually Kon-El leaves her for Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark. He otherwise has many of the same exploits, including adventuring in the 31st century and becoming an honorary Legionnaire, before finally "dying" at the hands of Superboy Prime and being buried for a thousand years.

Meanwhile in alternate reality, things took a darker turn with the destruction of the Justice League. Kon-El assumes the name of Superman, but breaks bad when Deathstroke murders Tana Moon, capturing and torturing the mercenary. Tim Drake takes on the mantle of the Bat...and Joe Chill's gun, using it to execute most of his mentor's long-standing rogue's gallery. Cassie Sandsmark becomes the new Wonder Woman, but in a darker aspect as the chosen champion of Ares. She is torn between the affection of Kon-El and Drake, but chooses to be with Tim in the end. Together they form a totalitarian regime as the Titans, ruling over the western US with an iron fist.

During the events of Infinite Crisis, the Teen Titans from the first reality are transported to the second where they meet their dark counterparts. The Teen Titans are able to escape back to their reality but are followed by the Titan's and their opposition in the form of the Titans East under the leadership of Cyborg 2.0 and Bart Allen. While there the first Wonder Girl is able to get through to Titan Kon-El, and he turns on his teammates. Tim Drake nearly shoots and kills Kon-El with a Kryptonite bullet, but Titan Flash Bart Allen interposes and is slain instead. In the end the Titans are defeated by the combined might of the Teen Titans and the Titans East and Titan Superman (alt Kon-El) decides to stay in the first reality with the other Teen Titans, becoming Superboy again. When he finds out their Tana Moon never died, he reaches out to her and the two are married. When the original Superboy is resurrected in the 31st century and returned to the past by Braniac 5, an older Kon-El, Tana Moon, and their 5 year old son Sebastion return with him to the future, where Kon-El joins the Legion under a new name, The Centurion. In the 31st Century, that was fourteen years ago, and 6 years after the original founding of the Legion.

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Bastion

Bastion, as pretty much everyone calls him, took well to growing up in the far future. He was well-recieved by the Legion, and came of age alongside many of the current generation, groomed to one day take on the ring and responsibilities himself. That day came upon his 16th birthday, making him now two years an active member, and one year in reserve.

He has many of the qualities you would think of in a stereotypical jock, cocky and competitive, much like his father once was. He's never one to turn down a dare, a race, a fight, or any other youthful status-seeking behavior, but his golden boy good looks, infectious charm, and natural ability to read others keep him from coming across like bully or a boor and he is very popular among his peers. While he doesn't shy away from his own talent, he will always be the first to complement another's achievement, and is a good sportsman whether winning or losing, so long as the competition played fair.

His telekinetic power didn't express itself until puberty but even as a child he was drawn to and excelled at future sports. With things being so quiet in the UP until recently, he downgraded to reserve status to sign on with the Metahuman Hyperdisc League where he is fast becoming a star player.

In his downtime, Bastion is an avid collector and connoisseur of early 21st century music, media, and memorabilia, which are a nostalgic link to his living but distant past. Some of his favorites include experimental artists like Flume or Radiohead. He has a collection of hand-built super-charged motorcycles on display in his garage, more out of appreciation for the craftsmanship, culture, and derring-do around their history than as a means of personal transportation. Far and away his favorite television show from childhood is J.J. Abrams' Fringe.

His arch-nemesis, if you will, is the Nemesis Kid, who in this reality went to prep-school with many of the Legionnaires, apparently even then an undercover plant from the League of Supervillains. Aside from being able to generate blasts that can penetrate his field, the Kid took the opportunity of humiliating Bastion in the hyper disc arena, and at one point even poached the girl he was going to ask to the Starlight Ball. More than a villain, that guy is just a jerk!

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Powers and Abilities

Sebastion has the ability to generate a powerful polarized telekinetic repulsor field around his body. This field offers incredible physical protection and will violently knock back anything that comes into contact with it. As a side effect this makes his appearance immaculate; dirt will not stick to him, rain bounces off, and his clothing can never be damaged. This field is self-regenerating, but hard enough hits that get through can still stagger and daze him. He can also use it's reflective properties to ricochet projectiles and beams back at the attacker.

When extended away from his body, it becomes nearly impossible for all but the strongest of metahumans to approach him. He is also capable of hardening the outer edges of this field into an even more protective bubble that moves with him.

By directing the thrust of this repulsor field, he is also capable of low supersonic movement along the ground, or prodigious leaps into the air.

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Complications

Motivation: Responsibility

The responsibility to use his powers for good. To protect those weaker than himself. His father will always be his first hero.

Motivation: Thrillseeking

Despite his heroic inclinations, Sebastian isn't above the thrill of competition, especially against a worthy rival.

Celebrity

Bastion is something of a sensation and is often accosted by fans, stalkers, jealous rivals, or those who want to make their reputation by bringing him down.

Enemy: Nemesis Kid

A prep-school rivalry turned full-blown archenemies. While their grudge is well-documented, neither can remember what truly set it off. Some people just inherently rub each other the wrong way, and it escalated from there.

World-weary, old, and honorable, Draygos has had his fill of war, slavery, loss, and death. Even so the warrior-born kydian has lived by the sword too long to find absolution in a reclusive retirement. Not while there yet remains a chance to give penance for his sins...live by the sword, die by the sword. As of late he has taken to the code of bushido, mentored in the ways of honor by the wandering ronin Kenzo. His memories hold such an exquisite sadness, a pain which while rarely shown, permeates his aura and drives him to the protection of others, putting himself in harm's way in a willful defiance of death.

Attitudes towards Others

Dray's disposition has shifted dramatically over the course of his life. Like most kydians he was raised to know that his race was elite above all others, yet subservient to his Splugorth Lord and its High Lord viziers. Propaganda became pride knowing that his people brought the enlightenment of the holy Splugorth to every world they conquered, and that those deemed unworthy deserved to be enslaved in service to the greater good of an ancient empire.

Now in what what will be his final years, after being disillusioned layer by painful layer, he has been stripped of the hubris and ignorance of youth. He has learned how precious life is, and to see the beauty and elegance of creation in even the most humble of creatures.

He is an enemy now to his former masters, having forsaken the Splugorth and all their degenerate and demonic client races. Demons, devils, gargoyles, oni, and all manner of supernatural intelligences, entities are anathema, evil to be purged from the megaverse.

Humans and D-bees alike are judged on a case by case basis. He is well-aware of the Splugorth's reputation and the fear and hostility he faces as a solitary minion, but fortunately they are mostly unknown in asia. In one instance he was able to bluff his way through Horune pirate territory under pretense of being on a special mission.

One aspect of his upbringing he has been unable to shake is his awe and reverence towards dragon-kind. While never a part of the formal cult of Dragonwright, they are considered holy creatures that even the Splugorth themselves revere. Nonetheless there are good dragons and evil dragons, and due caution is exercised in any contact.

Description

A particularly burly specimen of his race, Draygos stands a full 3 meters in height, and weighing in at a quarter-ton buck-naked. His skin is a darker shade of purple-grey than normal, approaching slate but he otherwise appears as a normal specimen of his race. Only the gleaming golden serpent-like slits of his eyes of Eylor give him away as a Powerlord. Concealed under his mystical armor he is host to a number of symbiotic organisms. The Absurr and Elom were his first implants, rewards for his valiant service across many dimensions, embedded in the base of his neck and spine respectively. Next were the Talos worms that hide behind the protective dome of his overlord half-helm, and most recently was the maxi-inducer which armors his spine, it's crablike legs wrapping around and into his ribcage.

Background

Born on the kydian breeding planet Penta Epsilon, Draygos served as a loyal overlord to Lord Splynncryth, a minor Splugorth with only 30 other planets to its name. He was a seasoned warrior at the age of 57 when he had the honor of serving in the vanguard the captures Atlantis. Rising through the ranks he was granted greater status and several wives with which to breed, further serving the empire. At the age of 100 he was elevated into the ranks of Powerlords following a successful assault upon a True Atlantean outpost hidden in a pocket dimension.

Perhaps it was the benevolence of the symbioses attached, or perhaps it was surviving the death of so many of his children, but over the next century a seed of doubt began to fester in the back of Dray's mind. When word spread that five Splugorth had perished attempting to capture Center the illusion of their divinity was finally shattered for him.The alien intelligences had saved his people from extinction aye, but how many more were born only to be cut down by the millions and all for the profit of a false god? Still, there was little he knew and little he could do but serve them. When offered another augmentation, he chose to be implanted with a maxi-inducer knowing it would cut short his greatly lengthened lifespan. Little did he realize that soon he would find new purpose, and a chance for some measure of redemption.

An exploratory mission was commissioned for Asia, with Dryagos one of 60 Powerlord squad leaders assigned to the

ref. World Book 6: South America, Page 154

Slaver Mothership known as the Maw. Operating out of the Horune base, the Maw began surveillance of Nippon islands and Russian coast. When Commanding High Lord Nikt'lan discovered the existence of a second Millennium tree hidden on Hokkaido he committed half of his forces to a raid. The plan was simple...a formidable metzla strike force of three Murex metzla, six Murvola and a dozen Kreewarr would engage the gods of light protecting the tree with a full kittani division of 500 power armor troops providing armored air support, while thirty Slaver barges would sow chaos on the ground capturing as many slaves as possible under the protection of powerlord-lead overlord squad for each. This was all a distraction of course, allowing a High Lord and a special ops squad of Conservators to slip past the defenders and harvest the tree for leaves and branches to be corrupted by the Splugorth.

As the

ref. World Book 6: South America, Page 153

Raider armada approached the Valley of the Gods, Draygos felt a tingle pass through his symbionts, along with a sensation similar to being watched. A feeling of dread and trepidation washed over him the close they got to their objective. Then battle was conjoined and there was little time to dwell.

The high lords used a special corrupted millennium staff to impale the primary ley line artery powering the tree, dampening it's ability to create storms and defend itself directly. Nonetheless the defenders of the tree were powerful indeed. At first the Atlantean forces seemed to be winning, but then one of the Murex went down, and two of the Kreewarrs. A Hindu deity vaporized a third of the kittani fleet, and a mystic fog of war cut off visibility for the ground forces. Then all hell broke loose when suddenly the Altarains turned on their Slaver minions! Dray's overlords had already fallen in battle but before he could decide what to do about the mutiny he was beset by a human warrior dual wielding a daisho. The warrior was fierce and unrelenting, neither able to find a decisive advantage and each slowly wearing the other down. Finally each found a critical opening, and were just about to meet death together when a wave of irresistible calm flowed across the valley like a tsunami. Appearing as of from thin air, a truly titanic Kumo-mi appeared, it's massive serpentine body coiling around the millennium tree amplifying its zenjoriki power.

Even had it not been using its awesome power to calm minds and sheath swords, the minions of Atlantis would be cowed with awe at the sheer majesty and might of an eastern dragon, never before seen. Its appearance ended the battle on both sides, but the true mission was already complete. The remaining high lords teleported themselves, the conservators and metzla back to the mothership. The slavers, kittani, and kydians, decimated in the battle were abandoned as expendable assets. Weary of fighting, surrounded on all sides, Draygos and the Altarains surrendered, remanded to bulbous cells coaxed out from the tree.

To his surprise, the skilled swordsman from the battle seemed to take an interest in Draygos, visiting him several times over the following weeks. The ronin, aided by feelings and visions from the tree, sensed the shifting tides with the kydian's soul. Over many conversations, held over games of Go, they grew to know each other. When it became clear that Draygos was repentant for his service and seeking a new life, Kenzo successfully lobbied the millennium druids and yamabushi of the tree for his release.

Free but not welcome among the valley kami, Draygos had his armor and equipment returned to him. As both a symbolic break with his past and genuine act of mercy, Draygos ended the lobotomized torment of the Zembahk in his staff, destroyed his zombitrons, and vowed never again to enslave or allow to be enslaved any sentient being.

Traveling south, Draygos carved a path through the freelands, occasionally skirting into the zone to avoid human supremacists or to rescue villagers captured by oni raids. It was in the aftermath of one of these pitched battles, a score of demons dead at his feet, that the enigmatic entity calling itself Ono made its presence known, enlisting the former Powerlord into a greater cause.